Rain Rain Go Away!

SW Wisconsin
On Friday morning we woke up after a great home cooked meal and a short sleep with the intention of getting on the "Strip". We started out late because we lost one of our wallets. We spent 20 minutes looking for it only to find it in a gear mix up. We showed up at the landing late and now in a rush we hurried out into the main channel.
With it still raining and no end in sight, Matt wanted to take a short cut to shave about 15 minutes off our ride. He was looking for 2 specific trees that marked the channel we needed. When he found what we were looking for he told me to" turn in here". We didn't make it far until the boat was stuck. We shouldn't have gotten stuck, even towing the 10ft boat, but the whole way out I knew something didn't feel right the way the motor was running. It seemed to be loosing power as the ride went on... we would soon find why.
Once in the main channel in this bay my uncle seemed confused. We had missed the 2 trees we needed. We got out of the boat and pushed it back toward the main channel the whole way trying to figure out where the turn was that we missed. We made it back and decided to take the long way around and continued on. It only took a few minutes until we encountered our next problem. I herd a loud snap and felt the boat jerk. I looked back and "OH MY GOD"! The 10ft boat was under water and our gear was floating down the channel. It had been taking on water (which was why we felt like we were losing power).
We quickly turned around and I yelled out "nobody miss the bags on the first pass"! I knew if we did not grab them the wake from the motor would sink them. My brothers bag is the only one designed to float so as I motored up to them I decided if I had to miss one on the first pass it would be his.
We managed all the gear bags in one pass! Now we had to get the cooler then the thermoses. After that it was the decoys and then the boat. We dragged all the gear to nearby shore as the channel is way too deep to get out. The guns were in our boat as I have never ever trusted something so expensive not right by my side, even though my case is a floating one. My uncles isn't, I think its designed to absorb water and sink, not sure because the tag is missing. After dumping the water out of the little boat and repacking we were on our way for the 3rd time.
We managed to find a spot in badger bay that we thought would work even though the wind was not right. We had to carry our wet heavy gear a ways to our spot and set up with just a little time to spare.
It was still pouring rain when shooting started and we jumped on a nice drake mallard right away. Shortly after that a green wing teal came 20 yds right over the decoys. My uncle and I stood up and almost at the exact same time powdered this teal. All that was left was a falling carcass and a floating cloud of feathers.
After this short burst we sat in the rain for awhile. All our gear was soaked right to the skin. We had birds work the bay but with the wind just not right it was hard. We managed one more hen Gadwall and decided to go in early and dry out our gear and hope for an evening shoot.

A DAY ON THE LINE

After showing up Wednesday night about 8:30, we had a quick beer and began to set up shop. We did some catching up, made the morning plan and began to reload the boat and the truck. After a short night sleep we were up at 2:00am and on the way to the landing. We stopped for some doughnuts and to fill our thermoses with coffee and showed up at the landing at about 3:15. With no one there our plan for the day was still on schedule. The boat ride out was long because we were also towing a 10ft boat behind us, but great navigation skills by Matt led us right where we wanted to go.

We quickly set up our canopy tent to keep dry as long as possible. With plenty of time to spare we sat around drank coffee cut some grass for blinds, and the best part of all, fired up the cook stove for some breakfast. After setting up decoys and hiding the boats we had our blinds ready to go and all we needed was some ducks. We all made our goals for the weekend and the shooting began. At the start of the shoot we saw quite a few birds but they were flying really high. Out of frustration we took a few low percentage shots with little success, But soon we would be lucky. After hitting a few we had found our groove.

Right at lunch we had the shot of the day by my brother. We were all standing around determining if we should move or stay and eating sandwiches, when a fat black duck came right into the decoys. the only one with a gun was my brother, and after setting his food down he pulled up with a great 1 shot powder on this bird at 35 yds. A little while later we had a mallard zip in from behind, my uncle and I swung around to hit it and I dropped it but had to whack it again. As the dog had just made it back with the bird, we had a teal working. I took the bird and trew it down in the grass and worked the teal around. It came right in and on the retrieve when he brought the teal in and was" healing" up, I noticed something spectacular on the mallard. Jewlery! I had made one of my goals for the weekend. 2 Years ago it was a big bull pintail for my wall, and this year I wanted a band.

We stayed on the line for the rest of the day and even though we should have limited out, we didn't. We had a few missed shots but we had a great time. We had birds corkscrew down on us from way high but with other people shooting around us it was hard to work birds down from high up. The rain had let up for the entire shoot but started up again as we picked up and the day ended just as it started. First ones out in the rain and last ones in to the launch in the rain.

2 Drake Mallards, 2 Hen Wigeon, 1 Hen shoveler, 2 Hen Mallards, 1 Black Duck, 4 Hen Gadwalls, 1 Hen Canvasback, 2 Hen Ringbills, 1 Drake Ringbill.... and no Geese!

From: Ryan
Sent: Oct 22, 2009 7:47 PM

17 birds


Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Two Lanyards So Far Today!

The pictures don't lie... it's been a good day so far!
(SW Wisconsin)

From: Ryan
Sent: Oct 22, 2009 3:49 PM

What a shame we had to start a 2nd lanyard

11 to go until limit (13 In the bag)
Ryan
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

The Junkies have Jewlery!

First morning out in SW Wisconsin...

------ MMS ------
From: Ryan/TYPE=PLMN
Sent: Oct 22, 2009 8:30 AM

The junkies have jewlery!
Ryan
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

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Be well and hunt on...

Another new spot

Second day trying a new spot in central Minnesota.
After spending last night working on the motor I was able to get a temporary fix made so that it would work. Being on the road is hard when stuff breaks and you don't have your tools and your shop to get things working again, but you make do with what you have.
With the wind forecast being strong my brother and I thought it better to not go back to yesterday's spot. We talked to my father in-law and he said that people had done well on the lake just down the road from him so we thought we would try it.
We got to the landing and set out. From the maps there should have been a nice spot across the lake. After a short boat ride we were there but not impressed. 30yrds out from shore it was 10 feet deep! The total lake depth was only 12! We motored to a back bay to find more of the same. We talked about heading back and baggin' the hunt but we didn't leave enough time to go anywhere else.

Being extremely tired we went back to the first spot threw out 4 goose decoys and 7 mallard decoys. I had a feeling that if the lake was 6 feet deep 10yrds out from shore, it wasn't going to have many birds. When the sun came up I was right. We herd a few shots in the distance but didn't see a thing. After 1 hour we decide to pick up.
Looks like there is another cold front moving down this week so hopefully it brings a few new birds. Only have a two-day turn around before we leave for SW Wisconsin. Hopefully someone has the part I need or I will have to make a more permanent fix for the week.

You know your a Junkie when...

We tried out a new location this morning. Any duck hunter that loves the sport has tried this and sometimes it works well, and other times not so well.
On Sat morning my brother and I went to a lake east of Alexandria that is known for bird, but also its depth. After doing some research and looking at maps, I fired up the GPS and we were off. We got to the landing early, really early, so that we would have enough time to explore in the dark and find a spot where we could get of the boat.
After about a 3/4 mile boat ride we stopped at the first location. We checked the depth only to find it was deep. We followed a channel through the rice and found another location. Also too deep. After talking another look at the GPS I found another channel that was heading in the direction I wanted to go. By now the dog is restless and watching coot everywhere. He decided he needed to come to the back of the boat while we were moving. In the process of doing so I herd a splash. I thought that he fell out. I turned my light to him to see he was still in the boat. He must have just slipped climbing over the gear.

We followed the channel to what looked like a sweet spot. I reached down to get the depth checker only to find it was not there. Remember the splash? I tried to convince my brother to just jump in, HAHAHA, but he wouldn't. I grabbed an ore and found a hard shallow bottom. Great! I marked it on the GPS and said lets see if we might find something better. I turned around and saw in the light that the motor was not pumping water to cool it anymore! I shut it down and tried to figure out what to do. 3/4 of a mile out on a lake I had never been before, in the dark, and broken down. "You know your a junkie when your motor breaking down is how you determine where to hunt."

Turned out to be the best spot on the lake considering how few birds we saw. Someone on the lake starting shooting 12 minutes early! That prompted a few ducks to fly right in to us but we waited until the legal shooting time. Right on the nose a GWT darted in and landed 10 yrds out. I walked out and jumped it and knocked it down.
Five minutes later we had another one land in the decoys but we could not see it in the shadows, but King did so I sent him to flush it. I told my brother to not shoot if it meant hitting the dog. He swam 2 feet from it when I saw the splash but could not see the bird fly away.
About 20 minutes later we had a GWT swim right into the decoys. I told my brother to walk out and jump it up. He did, and when it landed belly up with one foot kicking he thought he should tenderize the meat.
We heard a little shooting but not much and after 2 hrs and a thick fog rolled over the lake we decide to pick up. Not being able to see 20yrds in front of you and a hardly functioning motor makes for a great ride back. Never would have made it without using our trail out on the GPS to get back.
We made it to the landing and saw that there were a lot of people out that morning. One other guy came in and he only got 1 Bluebill on the other side of the lake for us. After trying to trade him motors, HAHAHA, (he had a really nice 35hp mud buddy surface drive motor) we headed out pheasant hunting. Too much corn still up. Dog flushed a few really nice roosters but the corn was too high to get a shot of in time.
Oh well. Looks like a long night of motor work.

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What A Sleeper

Did not do well at all this morning. Went back to the same spot as yesterday thinking that we would still do decent. Half moon and strong wind over night must have kept them moving. We had a lot more hunting pressure on the lake this morning but nothing to shoot at. Sat for 2 hours and only saw about 15 ducks total. There were a few groups getting very little shooting but we watched as they all chased crippled ducks for a long ways. Had one "pro duck caller" down the lake from us, that I would have loved nothing more than to tell him to shove the call where the sun doesn't shine, but I think that is where he already had it based on the calling. I do not understand why some people think that continuously blowing the call will bring ducks. Overall we should have gone to "plan B" lake. We only hunt this lake once a year but we didn't even fire a shot his morning. Talked with a buddy that just got back from Canada yesterday who said that there are "a ton of birds" up there still. Just have to wait for the next wave!